Movie – An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Back in the late 1980s and 1990s I had a subscription to Discover – a science magazine.  One of the occasional contributing writers was a Senator named Al Gore.  Prior to this the only thing I knew about him was that he had let his wife run a Senate “investigation” into objectionable (to her) lyrics in music.  Needless to say, the fact that the man actually had a good mind for science, and knew of its importance to our future, did a lot to restore my bad opinion of him.  I can’t honestly remember if any of his articles focused on global warming, but it would not surprise me.  Watching the documentary An Inconvenient Truth reminded me of how focused on science Gore had been before becoming the Vice-President of the United States in 1992.

Movie – Dangerous Beauty (aka The Honest Courtesan aka A Destiny of Her Own (1998)

The movie Dangerous Beauty is based on the biography The Honest Courtesan by Margaret Rosenthal.  It tells the life story of Veronica Franco, a woman who lived in Venice in the latter half of the 16^th century.  Franco was a very accomplished woman, being a top courtesan, political player, renowned wit, great beauty, socially charitable person, favorite of many men including King Henry III of France, and author of two books of poetry around the time Shakespeare was first starting to put quill to parchment.  As you may expect, such a woman would also gather her share of enemies.  The movie is an effectively told tale about this woman and her life.

Movie – Top Hat (1935)

Top Hat is usually considered the best of the ten Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies (although I prefer 1936’s Swing Time.)  Top Hat has the two of them at the peak of their popularity, in the first movie written specifically for them, and with songs written by Irving Berlin.  As you can imagine, the result is a very entertaining movie.  It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture.

Movie – Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was a big budget disaster flick written, directed, and produced by Irwin Allen.  Allen specialized in these kinds of movies (The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, etc.)  He was sort of the Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla, 2012, etc.) of his day.  At first I had some fun being amused at the outdated machinery and some bad science, but after a while I found myself caught up in the story.  I ended up liking the film and it made me curious about the TV show that spun off from it.

Movie – Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School (2005)

I’ll be honest; despite the cast in it, I don’t remember ever hearing about this film until I went searching for movies with “charm” in the title.  It’s based on the 1990 short film of the same name by writer/director Randall Miller (Bottle Shock).  Miller is once again at the helm for the full length movie.  I’m glad that I did end up watching it.  It has a combination of drama and whimsy that works much of the time. 

Movie – Strange Days (1995)

Strange Days is a near-future science fiction movie that didn’t get a lot of notice at the time it was released, even though it was written by James Cameron and starred Ralph Fiennes who was coming off his Oscar nomination for Schindler’s List.  It was directed by Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow.  After her Best Director Oscar win for The Hurt Locker people started re-discovering some of her earlier films, including this one.  In my opinion, Strange Days is the best film Bigelow made prior to The Hurt Locker, although I’d listen to the Near Dark (1987) fans who might disagree with me.

Movie – Downfall (2004)

Downfall is a German film based on two books that recounted the last days of Adolph Hitler – Inside Hitler’s Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich by Joachim Fest and Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s Last Secretary by Traudl Junge.  It is the latter that gives us the best look because it is the personal account of a woman who was actually there.  There is a level of personal connection we make with the character of Traudl in the film since we know that in some ways this is her story, too.  The result is a strongly dramatic, sometimes riveting look at the downfall of Hitler and the Nazis.

Movie – Up (2009)

The movie Up is only the second animated movie to ever be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar (the first was 1991’s Beauty and the Beast).  Up was one of the first to receive a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.  It ended up losing to The Hurt Locker in both categories.  It did win two Oscars: one for Best Animated Film and one for Best Score.  Up is a really beautiful film, not just in regards to the animation, but in regards to the story, too.  It has a mostly silent opening 10 minutes showing the life of the main character and his wife, from the time they are children, to the time that the wife passes away.  This sequence is very moving and is the finest opening to an animated film that I have ever seen.  The rest of the film is just as good.  This is a truly wonderful film.

Quarky Movies

“I have my eye on you Quark.” – Odo, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

That category title is not a typo.  I did not mean “quirky”; I meant “quarky”.  Okay, so I made the word up (and for a small fee I’ll license it to you).  I am using it to refer to quarks.  You know – quarks.  The subatomic particles that make up all matter?  Never heard of them?  Here's far more than you probably ever want to know about them.

For the purposes of this category all you need to know regarding them are that there are six “flavors” (types) of them.  Those flavors are Up, Down, Strange, Charm, Bottom, and Top.  Some people prefer to use the terms Beauty and Truth, rather than Bottom and Top.  I am going to do a set of movie recommendations that use a flavor of quark somewhere in its title.

Subatomic particles?  A quote not just from Star Trek, but one of the lesser known Star Treks?  Plays on words?  A Wikipedia link?  Yes, I am trying to come up with the absolute geekiest movie category ever created.  What do you think?  Did I succeed?

As I post the reviews, I will come back and post the links to them here:

Up	35 Up and the "Up" Series (already posted earlier) Pump Up the Volume (already posted earlier) Up
Down	Downfall
Strange	Strange Days
Charm	Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School
Bottom	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Top	Top Hat
Beauty	American Beauty (already posted earlier) Dangerous Beauty
Truth	An Inconvenient Truth

On to the reviews…

Movie – 35 Up (1991) and the “Up” Series

35 Up is one of a series of documentaries that have come out every seven years that chronicle the lives of fourteen people.  This post will discuss the series as a whole, with a focus on parts of 35 Up. 

With the tons of “reality” shows on TV purporting to be views into people’s lives, why should you bother to watch any of these movies?  Because they actually are real.  In addition, if small things that occur over a few months of filming one of those shows seem big to you, imagine seeing the changes that occur in people’s lives over five decades.   That is what these movies accomplish.

Movie – Pump Up the Volume (1990)

Pump Up the Volume is one of those semi-forgotten movies.  It stars Christian Slater, who’s earlier movie Heathers overshadows this one.  In fact, this movie pretty much is Christian Slater.  He is in almost every scene and he gets to play two very different personalities.  I’m here to remind people of this movie and to let you know why I feel it should not be forgotten.

Movie – American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty won five Oscars, including four of the five major ones, capped off by Best Picture.  It only missed for Best Actress.  Annette Bening was beaten by Hilary Swank’s performance in Boys Don’t Cry.  Unlike most Oscar winning movies, which are very dramatic and heavy, this movie had enough humor in it to be called a comedy/drama.